For anyone unaware, this old lady does indeed swallow said fly...but she doesn't stop there.

Having an undiagnosed eating disorder, she went on to eat a spider (in a futile attempt to catch the fly) and with no Dr. Phil to talk her down and no Humane Society to protect the animals that most definitely were harmed in the making of this ditty, she then ate (in order, I believe):

A bird (so absurd) to catch the spider

A cat (fancy that) to catch the bird

A dog (what a hog) to catch the cat

A goat (just opened her throat) to catch the dog

A cow (I don't know how) to catch the goat

This sweet story ends with the lady feeling she had only one option left to her. Leaving millions of children from the 1950's on up to have unexplained, unresolved sociopathic barnyard issues, she succumbed to her disorder...ate a horse and died.

The irony is that instead of people everywhere being appalled by this tragedy and Lifetime doing a movie of the week, (maybe starring that lady who played Edith Bunker...she'd be good, right?)...or maybe someone wanting to turn it into a reality show after the fact, sending questionnaires to unsuspecting members of her family inquiring:

#1) Do you now, or have you ever, had the urge to dine on ever-increasing-in-sized animals in a vain attempt to capture the smaller-sized animal?

#2) If the answer to #1 is no, would you consider trying it for your own reality show? We pay well...and we can assure that you and your family will never go hungry. Ha! Get it? We crack ourselves up.

Hell, I digressed there for a sec.

My point is that instead of this woman receiving some kind of pill along with some talk-therapy, or hell, maybe surgery...everyone watched as she just kept eating larger animals to rid herself of yet another unintended oops. I guess they felt if they intervened, then they wouldn't have this wonderful children's story to tell. Or sing. Or whatever.

Remember, this all started with that stupid fly. She had a little problem...and she unintentionally kept making it bigger and bigger, when all she was trying to do was to keep that fly from wreaking havoc on her very delicate digestive tract.

So the lesson here? When I checked with Dr. Phil for his input, he responded with, "First of all, that fly was protein. But, that's not the point. She needed to understand that the fly buzzing annoyingly around her awoke a much deeper, yet unrecognized eating disorder that would have required years of therapy to truly understand...bring out into the open and to ultimately, resolve."

My take on it? If you have a problem, (i.e.: the fly) try and take care of it before it requires many other steps to fix it.

For want of a nail the shoe was lost..... and all for the want of a horseshoe nail If you need to clear one of those things out of your mind starting another helps. And there is nothing like Lara's theme from Doctor Zhivago to clear out any useless ditty.

This is reminding me of when I was reading Dracula. Renfield the mental patient captured and ate various animals increasing in size. Actually... if I remember correctly, the order is the same as the old woman... THEY MUST BE RELATED! Or a new religion developed and we knew nothing about it until now. I'm going to look into this!

Why are so many children's poems/stories so violent and scary? I remember one jump rope jingle that went something like this: "Cinderella. Dressed in yella. Went upstairs to kiss her fella. Made a mistake and kissed a snake. How many doctors did it take?"

Was this just a strange foretelling of the many snakes to come that we Cinderellas would come to kiss? Hmmmm, makes one wonder. And you dear Kathryn always make me wonder. Ok, not wondering about you, just wondering about different things your posts bring up in my mind. Another great one!

I bought a little kid's book of this nursery rhyme for my daughter a couple weeks ago. Like all modern PC versions of the tales of yester year, this one was altered. They still did the whole "I don't know why she swallowed a fly, perhaps she'll die." But in the end, when she "swallowed a horse. She's full of course." It just let me down. My wife just reads it properly to our daughter. "She's dead of course."

I'd not really put the Dr. Phil thought behind her actions. You have a keen insight here.

Lauren: Dracula, you say?? Well, we should relay this information to the children, pronto! WTH? It can't be any worse than the ditty itself. If you find evidence of any brain washing, please contact me ASAP.

Christiejolu: YES...I saw that they've got alternative endings...I'm not in the least surprised. There's something wrong with a child happily doing a sing-song with the words "perhaps she'll die". Don't you think?

Gay Guy: Jean Stapleton....riiiight. Thank you, kind sir. Now, can you help me remember the name of the Marilyn Monroe wannabe who had her own show on E! who died last year...and also the name of the nurse's office on campus at college. Both of these have been driving me crazy all day.

Just be glad you grew up American... If in Thailand, the song might end up with an elephant, in Africa a rhino and in Japan a humpback whale... Good post and yes, I do remember the song and it probably is the reason I became so cynical at such a young age...

Speaking of history of Kathrynville, I have tagged you in a meme at my site. If you don't groan over memes, come check it out! http://www.pampersandpinot.comI am still linking everyone so it will be a few minutes.

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welcome!

I'm glad you stopped by. Now that you're here, I hope you'll breathe and reboot. Cocktails are optional, but highly recommended. Not that you need one to find me utterly charming...but it couldn't hurt.So pour yourself a glass of Cloudy, raise it high and send a toast to all of us. I'll try my best to make you smile. But if I fail, just pour yourself another...it's a win/win.